Hello!

[CoffeeCrazy]

Hi! I'm new to these forums and thought I would give a little background on myself. I'm really impressed with the dedication of the people here, especially those heading back to school to be a vet. I think the motivations of vet students really draws the distinction between medical school and veterinary school.

I'm 24 and will be starting vet school this fall at Illinois. I went to Duke University for undergrad and majored in biomedical engineering and biology... my interests have always been with animals but I wasn't positive I wanted to go to vet school. Low salary and all... I had to be certain I'd be in it for the right reasons. I also didn't have a very good GPA (2.8/4.0). I volunteered with a therapeutic riding program in college and worked part-time with some veterinarians researching a new cancer therapy. After graduating and getting my feet wet in healthcare research, I decided vet school was for me after all.

I took a class in biochemistry to complete pre-reqs, but thankfully Northwestern University has a great continuing education program which enabled me to take night classes. I also volunteered at the Anti-Cruelty Society and have spent a lot of time online helping sugar glider owners (I have 2 of the critters myself). I think my research experiences coupled with great GRE scores helped to offset my low GPA. But if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely focus on my grades. Which I am planning on doing in vet school.

Anyway, good luck to those who will be applying!

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[catdoctobe]

Hi Coffeecrazy!

I work at NU also and am taking scs courses working towards vet school. I am 32, though. So, a bit older. I decided to go back to school a few years ago and got a job here to enable me to take classes for cheap. It was a great idea, though i am certainly challenged! I haven't taken classes in a long time. are you still taking classes at NU? if so, what classes? Congrats on getting in to U of I! where else did you apply?

catdoctobe.

 

[CoffeeCrazy]

Hi -- what a small world. No, I'm not taking any classes currently. I do know what you mean about getting back in to studying... it's difficult to do, especially with a full time job.

(BTW, if you do take biochem through Northwestern, you can buy the book through www.amazon.co.uk for A LOT cheaper. I think I bought it there for 1/2 of what the bookstore was asking.)

The only other schools I applied to were Wisconsin and Colorado State. U of IL was my top choice because of location and tuition, and I knew it was the easiest for me to get in to, so there wasn't much point applying to a lot of schools. I did get Wisconsin's secondary app, but I suspect they only asked me to fill it out for my $40. Colorado said no right away, but they were a long shot for someone like me! A girl that works downstairs from me got in to Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois (in-state for her too), and was wait-listed at Wisconsin. She's going to Minnesota.

When will you be applying to vet school?

 

[catdoctobe]

I will be applying next summer. I am just now finishing my first semester of the pre-health classes-and am going to do an additional year of biochem, immunobiology, animal physiology and cell bio, as well as genetics and statistics. I am going to apply to as many schools as possible because I am married and don't want to take my husband back to U of I for 4 years if I have an option in a more interesting city (he went there for undergrad), but if i only get in to U of I, I will be very happy! So far I have started off this year rocky-not so great grades in gen chem and physics-but my first undergrad GPA was really good-so i'm hoping it will balance out!

where do you work? I work up at Kellogg. There was someone else here who also got in to U of I and started up this past fall. So she'll be a second year by the time you get down to Urbana. Thats pretty wild that the other girl got in also! did she take classes at NU too? if so-that's a pretty good track record for that pre-health program! that would be about 5 people that i know of that got into vet school after taking that program!

have a great day-i'd love to keep in touch with you after you start vet school to hear about it!

lenyr (catdoctobe)

 

[CoffeeCrazy]

Wow... you have a full course load ahead of you. The only class I took at NU was biochem because I had the rest of the prereq's in my undergrad. And the other girl also finished the prereq's in undergrad, she took a year or two off to work at a small animal clinic and do some research. Just keep an eye on your science GPA because that is based on a lot less classes.

In-state residents have a huge advantage... the number broke down to 205 IL applicants, ~130 interviews, and 80 acceptances. So your odds are much better in-state. I understand not wanting to be somewhere rural though, I wrestled with that thought myself. Then I eventually resigned myself to the fact I will only be 2.5 hours away from Chicago. Minnesota's CVM is in the Twin Cities, so that isn't a bad place to live if you can stand the cold.

I work in the Tarry building in one of the research labs as a tech. It's been a pretty good experience... interesting research and a lot of independence, but I think that is the exception rather than the rule. I'll still be on this board after I start vet school but you can also contact me via e-mail through here.

You might find this blog interesting. She talks a lot about how the first year has been. I'm also keeping a blog but obviously haven't gotten very far yet!

 

[charcot]

can anyone tell me what are the top 5 vet programs in the country?

 

[no-see-um]

can anyone tell me what are the top 5 vet programs in the country?

Cornell is definitely #1
Colorado State University is definitely #2
UPENN#3 (most likely)
Tufts (top-notch)

 

[CoffeeCrazy]

I don't know the rankings, but I hear a lot of good things about Cornelle and Tufts. UC-Davis is also a really good vet school. Like someone else said, they are still waiting for full accred. but they are still really good. I also hear Purdue is a very good school.

Of course, there really aren't many vet schools in the country, so they're all pretty good. Some are better in certain specialties than others. Like Cornell is awesome at equine medicine.

 

[danroberts1964]

Do you know of a sugar glider breeder breeder in the Champaign Urbana area? I have had no luck in finding one.
Dan Roberts
[email protected]

 

[tygris]

can anyone tell me what are the top 5 vet programs in the country?

Can anyone tell me why anyone would care?

 

[Bill59]

can anyone tell me what are the top 5 vet programs in the country?

There is no realistic, linear ranking of veterinary schools because there is no universally agreed upon formula on how you should weight the various criteria. Average starting salary of graduates? Scores on national boards? Percentage obtaining internships? Quality of food in the cafeteria?

Now … some are better than others in certain areas: swine medicine, orthopedic surgery, public health, exotic/zoo animal, behavior, or any other area you care to mention. But the bottom line is any of the North American schools will teach you all you need to know to be a graduate veterinarian and more. Beyond that, it’s up to the student.

(Yes, I know US News and maybe other magazines publish rankings. These are excellent for selling magazines and lining cages.)

 

[HorseyVet]

(Yes, I know US News and maybe other magazines publish rankings. These are excellent for selling magazines and lining cages.)

I wonder why they haven't re-done that ranking? Isn't it from 2002 or something? I sort of guessed that everyone pitched a big enough fit that they decided it wasn't worth doing....Anyone know why they (or anyone else really) haven't?